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The Sanguinarian

Sunday, 12 October 2014

American Beauty

American
Beauty

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Oliver
whispered to his best friend squatting beside him, his forehead creased with
worry and drenched in sweat.

“Yeah! We are, dude. Why the hell do you have to be
such a chicken every time I try to get us to do something new? I think the room
has a TV…American Beauty is on!” Gareth replied in a whisper, his gaze straight
ahead.

“Because this is crazy, Gary! We’re spying on the
Reverend’s daughter, for heaven’s sake! On a particularly warm summer night!”
Oliver whispered, squinting to get a better look inside the window of what they
assumed was Reverend Morgan’s daughter Angela’s bedroom. Oliver left his glasses
behind in his house when Gary had sneaked inside his bedroom and asked him to
follow him for a nighttime adventure.

“Why do you wanna do this anyway?” Oliver asked.

“Are you kidding me? Haven’t you seen Angie Morgan?
She’s like the prettiest girl in class! What with those blue eyes, and those
gorgeous lips…and don’t get me started about that butt of hers…it’s like a
peach! I’m not a religious person, but that girl’s beauty is divine!” Gary
replied.

“Of course I have seen Angela, and she is beautiful.
But still, we are a pair of peeping Toms looking inside a girl’s bedroom. We’re
violating her privacy!” Oliver observed.

“Don’t be such a goody-goody, Oliver. And why the
hell are you squinting inside her bedroom if…wait a second…what the hell!”
Gareth whispered, staring inside the , which was wide open, with his eyes as
wide as tennis balls.

“What is the Reverend doing in Angie’s bedroom?
Where the hell is she?” Gary whispered.

“What’re you talking about?”

“Reverend Morgan just entered Angie’s room…he looks
gross in those shorts and vest. He’s watching American Beauty, for God’s sake!
What a pervert!” Gary whispered.

“Seriously? He’s the pervert? We’re trespassing
inside someone’s property to peep inside a girl’s bedroom and he’s the pervert
for watching American Beauty?” Oliver whispered, smacking the back of his
friend’s head.

“Stop playing the moral police, you moron! Angie’s
the Reverend’s daughter so I can never hang out with her in public or make her
my girlfriend. This is my only way to be near her. Plus, the Reverend is a man
of God and men of God don’t watch a sexy hot movie,” Gary whispered in reply.

“That’s a load of bullcrap!”

“Shut up! Let me watch, now!”

Five minutes passed with both friends squatting in
silence in the bushes, with only the sounds of the insects chirping around them
and the cover of darkness for company.

He opened them immediately, because with his eyes
closed he could only see the horrible visage of the back of the Reverend’s head
exploding like a ripe watermelon and a river of blood gushing out- some of it
also spraying on Angie.

“I doubt there is a God if that angel of a girl can
shoot her father,” Oliver commented, wiping some sweat off his face. He
realized his shirt was drenched too and stuck to his chest.

It was the second time that night he was thankful he
had forgotten his glasses at home.

“Oliver?” Gary whispered.

“Yeah?”

“This is our little secret, okay? No one ever needs
to know what we just saw.”

“Don’t you think we should call the police and
report the crime?”

“And getting caught for trespassing and trying to
peep in Angie’s house? No thank you!”

“You’re right. I didn’t think of that eventuality.”

“Besides you just called her an angel yourself. Do
you really wanna see her in jail for patricide?”

“No, I don’t. You’re right. We will take this secret
with us to the grave.”

“Yeah. Now let’s scoot from here before the whole
neighborhood realizes what happened and comes running here,” Gary replied, and
tried to think of how to manage sitting up without the top of his head showing
above the bushes. If Angela happened to see Oliver and him, he was sure their
heads would be the next to explode like watermelons.

“You think the neighbors heard the shots? Angie shot
the Reverend point blank,” Oliver whispered, lifting his body off the ground
and trying to get his bearings in the dark.

“Yeah, but the sound wasn’t that muted. If we heard
it then the immediate neighbors must have heard it too. Shit, someone’s coming.
Come on!”

Both boys managed to run away just before the first
neighbor knocked on the Reverend’s door three minutes later.